CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



* 



SECTION I. 



GENERAL LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION. 



578. No animal, excepting man, inhabits every part of the 

 surface of the earth. Each great geographical or climatal re- 

 gion is occupied by some species not found elsewhere ; and 

 each animal dwells within certain limits, beyond which it does 

 not range while left to its natural freedom, and within which 

 it always inclines to return, when removed by accident or 

 design. Man alone is a cosmopolite ; his domain is the whole 

 earth ; for him, and with a view to him, it was created ; his 

 right to it is based upon his organization and his relation to 

 nature, and is maintained by his intelligence and the perfecti- 

 bility of his social condition. 







579. A group of animals inhabiting any particular 

 region, embracing all the species, both aquatic and terrestrial, 

 is called its FAUNA, in the same manner as the plants of a 

 country are called its FLORA. To be entitled to this name it is 

 not necessary that none of the animals composing the group 

 should be found in any other region ; it is sufficient that 

 there should be peculiarities in the distribution of the fami- 

 lies, genera, and species, and in the preponderance of cer- 

 tain types over others, sufficiently prominent to impress upon 

 a region well-marked features ; thus, for example, in the 

 islands of the Pacific are found terrestrial animals, altogether 

 peculiar, and not found on the nearest continents. There are 

 numerous animals in New Holland differing from any found 

 on the continent of Asia, or, indeed, on any other part of the 

 earth : if, however, some species, inhabiting both shores of a 

 sea which separates two terrestrial regions, are found to be 

 alike, we are not to conclude that those regions have the same 

 Fauna, any more than that the Flora of Lapland and England 



